


Untouched

by proprioception (sacrificethemtothesquid)



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-28 07:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11413410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sacrificethemtothesquid/pseuds/proprioception
Summary: “Shekissedhim.” Cheedo heaves a dramatic sigh. “I think they’re in love.”“You’re full of shit,” Toast says, and then she and Dag burst out laughing.





	Untouched

**Author's Note:**

  * For [furev](https://archiveofourown.org/users/furev/gifts).



> Inspired by [Paper Forest (in the Aftermath of Rapture)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sC2aUuj0a8) by Emmy the Great

 “D’you think they’re in love?” Cheedo’s lying on her back in the dark room, her arms tucked behind her head. The question’s been burning in her mind for _days,_  and she can’t hold it back even one second longer.

Dag is more than half-asleep, curled underneath a blanket on the other side of the mattress. “Who?”

“Furiosa and Max, obviously.”

“Go to sleep,” mutters Toast, facedown in the next bed.

“I’m just _asking_.” Cheedo rolls over to face her sisters. “Do you?”

Dag snorts. “No.”

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t give her flowers. That’s a thing you’re supposed to do.”

“He brought her a seedpod. That becomes a flower.”

“It’s for a tree. It’s completely different.” Dag’s spent hours coaxing the seeds out with a pair of thin tweezers. So far, only a couple of the seeds have germinated, and the seedlings are tiny and fragile, watered daily and tucked against the Vault glass in clay pots.

“Trees have flowers,” Cheedo points out.

Across the room, Toast makes a show of flopping the pillow over her head. “Stop talking and _go to sleep._ ”

“You think about it too,” Cheedo says loftily. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have bet against Mari that they were having sex.”

“I did _not!_ ”

“I saw the ledger! It’s okay, Dag bet too.”

Dag is silent a moment. “...what’s your wager, then?”

Toast chuckles in the darkness. “Fifteen hours of clinic duty says she’s untouchable.”

Dag hums thoughtfully. “How do you figure?”

“He’s a _man_ ,” Toast says, as if this were the most obvious reason in the world.

“And she’s a woman. It happens.”

“I don’t mean he won’t try to fuck her,” Toast retorts. “I just think she’d kill him if he tried.”

“She _likes_ him,” Cheedo says, a bubble of distress rising in her chest. “Maybe she wants him to. That’s what people do when they like each other.”

Dag glowers. “Joe didn’t like us any more than we liked him, and it still happened.”

“Maybe it was different with her.” she says hopefully. “He wouldn’t have made her an Imperator if he didn’t like her, and she wouldn’t have fought for him if she didn’t like him, just a little.”

Toast gives up all pretense of sleep, propping herself up on one elbow. “She didn’t have a _choice_. You’ve heard her talk.”

“Max is _different_ ,” Cheedo insists. “Plus...she kissed him.”

Dag rolls onto her back. “She was going to _murder_ him.”

“He left,” Toast says. “I agree with her. I’d’ve murdered him too.”

“You’re still not sure you won’t,” Dag points out.

“...fair point. Reliable, my ass.”

“She _kissed_ him.” Cheedo heaves a dramatic sigh. “I think they’re in love.”

“You’re full of shit,” Toast says, and then she and Dag burst out laughing.

“I’m _serious_!” Cheedo says, indignant.

“Love,” Toast manages. “Are you serious? What would that even look like?"

“Flowers,” Dag supplies, listing things they’ve read about in books. “Sweets. Toy animals.”

“Not flowers - a bouquet of _thundersticks_. Lizard jerky!”

“He’d hold the door open for her when they get in the _car-_ ”

The mental image is so absurd that even Cheedo has to giggle too, despite herself. Max, gallant as one of the heroes from Miss Giddy’s books, making a deep, sweeping bow to a Furiosa clad in a flowing gown-

She can’t picture it. She just _can’t_.

“She’d hold the door for _him,_ ” Dag corrects herself. “He’d be the damsel in distress-”

“Of course she’d rescue him,” agrees Toast. “The bloodbag, trapped in the tower-”

They all know they are the damsels, and the Vault is as tall a tower as any in the stories. Cheedo feels it, feels the hard edge of the laughter. Before Furiosa came and got them, she’d imagined being a rescued princess; it’s why she’d snuck the lip paint and eyeblack into the meager possessions she’d been able to take. She’d imagined standing out on the sand, breathing in the fresh air of freedom, an ethereal vision of white cloth and aching beauty.

It had been _nothing_ like her fantasies. The ugliness and heat and _noise_ of the world outside stole her breath as soon as the rig fired up. The water had tasted stale, the dirt clinging and everywhere. She’d been half-paralyzed with shock and fear-

It’s over. She’s back where she belongs. The whole terrifying ordeal is finally, blessedly over. She spends her days in the Vault, and instead of being decorative and shackled, she’s learning to be useful. It’s _hard_ , and sometimes she misses Angharad so much she has to bury herself in her pillow and sob.

“Cheedo, you’re full of shit,” Toast is saying, but without rancor. “My bet stands.”

“I think they’ll do it,” Dag says. “I mean, eventually. I bet they’re doing it already.”

“Okay - but why?”

“He came back and gave her _a seed._ ”

“Doesn’t mean she’d let him plant one of his own.”

“I think she would. Why else would she have accepted it? It’s _symbolism_.”

Toast makes a rude noise.

“Well, I think he’s in love with her,” Cheedo announces. “That’s why he came back.”

“We’re a safe place.” Toast picks a fingernail. “He came back for supplies.”

“He _kissed_ her!”

None of them have an answer for that. Finally, Toast says, “...well, Capable kisses Keno. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Both of her sisters sputter. “ _That_ definitely means something,” Dag says, just as Cheedo cries, “Of _course_ it does!”

“Capable-and-Keno is not a thing-”

“She just doesn’t tell us about it,” bemoans Cheedo. “I’ve _tried._ ”

Dag smirks. “I bet his parts don’t work. Schlanger.”

“She likes him - I bet she doesn’t want to embarrass him. Remember how embarrassed Joe was?”

“They’re not having sex. She wouldn’t!”

“It can’t be _all_ bad.” Cheedo forages ahead. “I mean, we all came to be, right?”

“It’s not bad for _men_.” Dag rolls her eyes. “That’s why they make us do it.”

“It can be good for women too-”

Toast cuts her off. “You never had to do it. You don’t know anything about it.”

“I’m just _saying_ -”

“Shut up, Cheedo.”

It hurts, but Toast is right. She _doesn’t_ know, but that’s not her fault. She thinks of Dag screaming to take her place, of the bruises Cheedo sponged down for days after that.

“I’m just saying, maybe Capable likes it-”

Toast growls. “He’s obviously pressuring her into it. He’s trying to be Immortan-”

“He is _not_ ,” Cheedo snaps. “Capable likes him. She didn’t like Joe.”

“What do _you_ know about liking Joe-”

“She smiles,” Dag agrees. “She comes back happy.”

“You weren’t there for Nena,” Toast retorts. “ _She_ liked Joe, said they were madly in love with each other, right up until he drowned her in the pool.”

They’re all silent for a long time. “Joe hurt us,” Cheedo finally says. “Miss Giddy said it wasn’t our fault.”

“He hurt _us_ ,” Toast corrects her bitterly. “Dag made sure _you_ never felt it.”

“It _worked_ ,” Dag retorts. “That’s why we can argue about it - she’s safe.”

“She’s a fucking _virgin_. She doesn’t know-”

“I watched,” Cheedo says quietly, because she _had_ , and every time the Organic came to spread their legs and poke around, she’d felt sick with dread that this time, this time was the time he’d grin with his horrible, drooling mouth and say, “This one’s finally ripe,” and it would be _her_ turn to squeeze herself shut as tightly as possible. Miss Giddy made them practice breathing through their noses in quick, deep breaths, telling them it would hurt less if they relaxed, but who could relax with Joe naked and looming above them?

Toast seems a little mollified. “You still don’t know,” she mutters. “But if Angharad was right and Furiosa _was_ one of us, then _she_ knows.” She grits her teeth. “I’m never letting another man touch me ever again, and I bet she won’t either.”

“You’ve got fifteen clinic hours on that,” Dag says, her voice floating through the darkness. It breaks the tension a little. “That’s less than what I bet.”

“It was all Mari would let me wager.” There’s a brief pause. “Wait. She let you bet _more_?”

“I’m already in the clinic half the day,” she says smugly. “If I lost, I’d barely notice.”

Toast frowns. “...Cheedo. Did you say Mari is actually in on this?”

“She said she wouldn’t.” She grins to herself. “But I think she and Amy have their own wager.”

“ _Fuck_.” Toast flops back on her pillow. “She’d better be on my side.”

“She won’t tell me one way or the other. Dag, did she tell you?”

Dag hums. “Silent as the waste.”

They lie there in silence, a pale beam of moonlight leaking in through the high stone window. “I don’t think Max will hurt her,” Cheedo muses.

“He tried to _shoot_ her,” Toast reminds her. “Right before he actually shot Angharad.”

“He was insane, then.” Dag points out. “When he wasn’t, he was on our side.”

“He _stabbed_ her.”

They all stop for a long moment, remembering the horrible noise Furiosa made, the agonized rattle of a pipe clogged and struggling. “He had to let the air back in,” Dag says quietly.

Toast has no response to that.

“It hurt him to hurt her like that,” Cheedo says. “I saw it in his face. That’s why I think they’re in love. Loving someone means not wanting to hurt them, even if you have to.”

“How would you even know that?” Toast asks wearily.

“My dad said it.” She swallows hard. “He said it right before Furiosa bought me.”

“Your dad was fucking stupid.”

“He was not!” Defensive anger swamps her senses. “My brothers were _starving_ , and she said I’d be treasured! And it’s not what I thought it would be, not at all, but it’s better than what I could have had if I’d stayed in Bartertown!”

It’s true. They all know it’s true.

“You might not have thought so if he’d actually fucked you.”

“We have food and water and shelter,” Cheedo says coldly. “And it was once a month. I’m not stupid.”

“You _are_ , and you’re stupid for choosing this!”

“What could I have done?”

“Run away. Fought it.”

“They would have _starved_. Dad got twelve bottles for me, and that would have fed them for _months_.”

“Bet he drank them himself.”

Furious tears spark in her eyes. “He _wouldn’t-_ ”

“Toast, don’t,” Dag interjects.

“Fine.” Toast abruptly rolls off the bed and angrily snatches her pillow. “Fuck you both. Furiosa and Max aren’t ‘in love’, it isn’t some stupid honor to be here, and I don’t care what you say.” She stalks out the door.

Cheedo bites down on her fist.

Dag rolls over and strokes Cheedo’s hair. “She could leave,” Dag says quietly. “She could leave anytime she wants. Capable would make sure she’s got supplies and a bike.”

“I didn’t mean to make her mad, I just-”

“It’s okay.” Dag tucks a wayward lock behind Cheedo’s ear. “She’s mad at old Joe, not you.”

“I wish you hadn’t gotten hurt because of me.”

“I’d do it again,” Dag says fiercely. “Doing it made you the most free of any of us.”

 

****

 

Still, the question burns in her mind. Capable’s sitting across the table in the Vault, nose-deep in her ledger as Cheedo wraps garlic into braids for storage. “Do you think Furiosa and Max are in love?”

Capable blinks, and considers. “I don’t know,” she says.

“Do think they’re Doing It?”

That stops her in her tracks, and she puts down her pencil. “They sleep together,” she says slowly. “But I don’t think they’re having sex.”

“Why not?”

Her sister tries to frown, but her lips twist oddly, like she’s hiding a smile. The tips of her ears go pink. “...they don’t seem like it?”

Cheedo pounces. “How do _you_ know?”

“I don’t,” Capable says, too quickly. “But if they were, he’d...I don’t know...they’d seem different?”

“You know because _Keno_ ,” Cheedo squeals. “You’re doing it.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You _want_ to.”

Now Capable is blushing completely. “...yes.”

“Why?” This a thrill of information, a wealth of answers to questions Cheedo can’t even form yet. Capable doesn’t seem distressed - if anything, she’s glowing with a soft happiness beneath her red cheeks. “Is he...he’s not like Joe, is he?”

“No!” Capable says quickly, firmly, angrily. “No, he’s _not_. This is my choice. I want this.”

“Why?”

“It feels good.” She glances down at her ledger, and when she looks back up, there’s a fierceness in her eyes that Cheedo hasn’t seen before. “It feels...I think it feels like it’s supposed to.”

“Toast says it only feels good for men.”

“Toast,” Capable says archly, “is _wrong._ ”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” The sisters share everything, and there’s an odd hollow in Cheedo’s chest that Capable kept this a secret. It seems very important.

Capable looks at her hands. “It’s hard for all of us,” she finally says. “And Joe was worst to Toast, for whatever reason. I don’t...I don’t want bring up things they’d rather not talk about.”

“But if it’s good for you, they should know that,” Cheedo insists, “They’d know it could be different.”

Her sister shakes her head. “It’s not always different. Maybe it’s different for me right here, right now, but outside the Citadel? It’s still...it’s something that gets used.” She shrugs. “It’s a commodity, like anything else. Just because Joe paid us in the high life doesn’t mean we were anything different.”

“We _are_ different.”

Capable bites her lip. “I’ve seen false hope,” she says quietly. “And I’ve seen what men do to women. What I have right now isn’t something that happens. Maybe it’ll turn bad. I don’t want to tell them things are different if...if they’re not.”

Cheedo frowns. “Why take the risk, then?”

“I need to.” It’s a small, fragile admission, one that leaks out from between clenched teeth. “Joe was...he wasn’t…” Her voice trails off, and Cheedo’s heart clenches in her chest. “He wasn’t good,” Capable finally says. “What he did wasn’t how it’s supposed to be. I have to believe that, I _have_ to, or I’ll just...”

The unsaid words hang in the air, dark and desperate. Cheedo thinks of Angharad, of the lattice of pale scars on her face and arms, of the night they found her with blood on her thighs and wire in her hands. She thinks of Furiosa’s wild-eyed, terrifying rage, how Furiosa had _known_ Joe wouldn’t kill Dag when she spoke up for Cheedo’s innocence.

Furiosa, delirious with fever, Max’s jacket tucked around her shoulders. Furiosa, who accepted the banksia seed and then kissed him as if they were in the most triumphant, romantic book Cheedo had ever read.  

“Furiosa and Max,” Cheedo whispers. “Do you think...?”

Capable shakes her head. “She doesn’t know she’s a person,” she says quietly. “But...I think he doesn’t know he’s one either.”

“Toast says she’s untouchable.”

“I don’t believe that. I think she’s going to figure it out.”

“With Max?”

“No one else could do it.” Capable narrows her eyes. “Why are you so fixated on this? What’s going on with you?”

Cheedo might have come to the Citadel willingly, and she might not have known the worst Joe was able to inflict, but she still knows how to slide out from under suspicion. She puts on her best innocent face, wide-eyed and guileless. “Just curious.”

Capable sees right through it. “You _bet,_  didn’t you.” She throws up her hands. “All of you, wagering on something so serious like some crusty scavs during Amnesty!”

“I didn’t. _Your_ name was in Mari’s ledger, though.”

Her mouth opens, and then closes. “You little _spy_. I just want her to be _happy_.”

Cheedo grins. “Maybe you won’t be in the clinic, then.”

 

****

The day after Dag has her baby, Furiosa and Max walk into the Council Room, and Cheedo _knows_.

They’re still themselves, the Imperator and the road warrior, but there’s that _glow_ , the one that hangs around Capable in a permanent cloud. Cheedo’s heart leaps into her throat. Furiosa was a Wife, and now she’s standing beside Max like he’s something she’s claimed, blushing but unharmed, _unashamed_ , and _he_ is not quite smiling, but as dazed and blissed-out as Capable has ever been. It’s exactly the opposite that Cheedo would have expected; she’d never dreamed Furiosa would do the claiming, but that makes it all the more glorious. This was Furiosa’s choice, and Max’s choice, and he’d be _dead_ if it weren’t.

It’s also further evidence that Joe was _wrong_ , that what he did wasn’t how it’s supposed to be.

Toast has lost the bet. She rolls her eyes, but oddly, she isn’t furious. Beneath her grumpy bluster, she almost seems _glad_.

 

****

 

Later, they’re all curled together around Dag. She’s sore and irritable, her new daughter resting on Capable’s chest. “Max and Furiosa are in love,” Cheedo announces.

Dag makes a face. “You’re insane.”

“They _are_. I’m right and you know it.”

“Did they say that?”

“They don’t _have_ to.”

Toast’s voice is small, hesitant. “Do you think that means he won’t leave again?” She means _do you think he’ll leave_ us _again._

“She’s not afraid of something she knows will happen,” says Dag, shifting uncomfortably in her pillow nest.

“But why does he leave?” Cheedo asks. “He’s welcome here. We have food and water. What’s out in the wastes that he can’t find here?”

“Redemption,” says Capable quietly. “He can’t save us when we’re already saved.” She strokes the baby’s downy crown, enthralled.

Dag snorts. “Dust storm, schlangers burning everything, no water. _Are_ we saved?”

“No,” Toast says, and then she turns to her sisters with a fierce grin. “But we’re making sure we’re _gonna_ be.”

There’s a comfortable silence, Capable humming quietly to the baby on her chest.

Cheedo can’t help herself. “...I still think they’re in love.”

All three of them throw pillows at her. 


End file.
